How to do skinny

A very chic friend who works for a New York department store recently confided that she felt past her fashion sell-by date on a trip to London last month. While she was wearing boot-cut Seven jeans, she noticed that all the stylish young women in the capital had adopted skinny-legged denim. Suddenly, her flattering, leg-lengthening jeans were woefully out of date and all she wanted was a pair of Superfine's "Liberty" jeans, which were already a sell-out across the city.

Skinny jeans have had a meteoric rise thanks to the numerous paparazzi shots of denim-clad Scarlett Johansson and Kate Moss in them. Moss has been wearing drainpipes for at least a year, but recently her signature look of a striped top, grey skinny jeans and black ballet pumps has done more to popularise the new silhouette than any number of catwalk images.

Not that this trend has very much to do with designers - it's the cool, premium denim labels that have introduced the new styles. Anna Garner, head of fashion at Selfridges, believes it's a look that has come from the streets, too. "London girls have really put this look together themselves - it's a backlash to this autumn's grown-up elegance and also part of a 1980s revival," she says.

But how do you wear skinny-legged jeans if you're not skinny? If your thigh to calf ratio is high, should you pull on anything other than the blissfully forgiving boot-cut jeans?

Following the Kate Moss example is definitely not the way to go. Wearing flat shoes, such as ballet pumps, only works on girls with slender pins. For anyone else, a few cunning optical illusions are required. Drainpipes became popular because we all wanted trousers to tuck inside our high-heeled slouchy boots - and, as a bonus, the very same boots are a crucial balance to the body-hugging skinny denim. The chunkiness of the boots makes legs look thinner while also adding a little height, which is crucial to the look. (Flat pumps, on the other hand, simply make chunky thighs look even more substantial.)

If your legs are reasonably slender, but you prefer to keep your behind under wraps, wear skinny jeans or cords with a long tunic top or chunky cardigan. Avoid wearing a belt over the top, because it will only emphasise hips. Voluminous blouses and jersey tops will also make your bottom half look skinnier than it really is.

Just as crucial, of course, are the jeans - some are far more forgiving than others. Superfine, Sass & Bide and Diesel are among the most popular labels with models and denim lovers, but they are also among the skinniest jeans you can buy. Gap's skinny jeans have a similarly slender silhouette but are far less extreme and much more flattering, while the cords are a softer way to wear the look.

Similarly, Radcliffe's NW1 cut is a less extreme drainpipe with clever stirrups, which keep them neatly tucked into boots. The range also includes a jet black denim pair, which is a smarter alternative to the dirty greys and faded blacks.

Garner recommends jeans with a narrow, straight leg, such as those by Earl and Goldsign, rather than an all-out drainpipe. Selfridges is holding workshops with the glamorous designers behind the cult jeans label Sass & Bide - the duo will offer styling tips at the Manchester store on November 25, while on November 27 they will be at the London flagship.

And if this season's denim seems to be a challenge, consider next spring's hot trend: skinny white jeans, which will be even trickier to pull off.